From the sprawling lawns of Kanota Palace (Jaipur - Jan, 2017) to meadow like spread of green carpet at Madhubani Hotel (Dehradun), it has been a long journey. I remember Sanjeev Ji (The Hon Advisor of Valley of Words (VOW2017) - An International Literature and Arts Festival which spread its creative wings last week i.e. 17th - 19th Nov, 2017 in Dehradun) talking to me and Aswani about his vision to create a festival, where all forms of creative expressions is given a platform.

Hon Gov K K Paul of Uttarakhand inaugurated the festival.

A festival that does not necessary have to engage crowd pullers but the real thinkers, philosophers, who will ensure that the echoes of its engagement will move beyond the valley of Doon and reach out to the readers, artists and creative people beyond boundaries.

The Group behind "VOW2017"
If you can spot me, I am 3rd from the right in the first row.

It has been an honour to part of this Festival from inception to completion. So here I am sharing my journey of VOW - The Road To Dehradun, through some of the pictures I have had taken over the year.

The beginning of the journey...
Sanjeev Ji, Aswani, Atulya Mishra, Anjani and Jasbir at Kanota Palace

Valley Of Words launched..
After almost 6 months, we were ready with the Logo, Vision & Mission

Some of the Advisors, who were there with us from the beginning and
some joined us on the way...

And as usual, behind every successful event, there is
The Power Of Women

And then there were these amazing people from the Valley Of Words
The Volunteers who ensured that each of the authors were happy
and
Contended
We are grateful for things you guys have done and things
that you have done and not many people noticed.
All the bags of goodies from VOW2017 including the 'First Day Cover'
you guys ensured. Thank you team and Rohan & Neha you guys did it

From the Old Dehradun Literature Festival - DELTA
We Changed to...

The New Dehradun Literature Festival - Valley of Words

And then the woo-ing started with thought leaders not the crowd pullers..
Some could come and some could not come... but then it was all
about 'Being there, Doon That'

And many workshops that have changed the out look of
VOW2017 Festival

Tried to get thinkers and thought leaders as many as possible
Some came and some had to drop like Keshav from HINDU

But in reality, we started in real earnest the day this happened...

Two hundred days to go and we tightened our belts...

Reached out to our Authors, Resources and panelists

Reached out to our friends Indiblogger as the Blogging Storm
was on its own way to the valley of words...

On The Road To Dehradun - At Hilton Bengaluru

And it happened in Blore and glad to say that we have had 100 Bloggers
to visit us at VOW2017 and 8 live bloggers...
(Sorry I have only pics of 3, please share yours I will upload it.)

And then this happened...
Behind every success, there is lot of work that goes un-noticed and
I must appreciate that behind our individual success, there was
our friends and the family that were behind us...
Supported us despite our whims and fancies

Finally as my friend Timeri N Murari and Maureen said, that it was one of the most friendliest festival they have attended, I will leave you with one of my own friendly moment, thanks to Bobby Cash, who I have made a friend for life.

Thank you Bobby Cash - The Echo of Valley and the lovely friends,
Readers, thinkers and the flag bearers of "Valley Of Words"

YOU ARE VISITOR NUMBER...

WORLD'S TOP SPIRITUAL BLOG - 36TH RANK (2016)

SPOTLIGHT - PROMOTING NEW AUTHORS

Spotlight is my small effort to support upcoming authors in their effort to reach their readers. And yes, it is FREE, however to be featured in this section, you need to go through a selection process, please click here for details.

Writes Poetry, Haiku, Spiritual Fiction, most of the times about Spiritual and blissful living. He enjoys spiritual journeys across India / High on Himalayas or floating below in depths Ganges, on a self-exploration trip, all the while trying to work out that elusive enlightenment, which every one talks about but, most of the times, don't find.

... and he ends up writing about these experiences at his blog "Shadow Dancing With Mind", which is considered to be India's #1 Spiritual Blog (last three years) and has been listed #36 in top 50 spiritual blogs of the Planet this year.

MY BOOK - 1 OF 'THE MONK KEY' 3 PART SERIES

Songs of the Mist

SONGS OF THE MIST - An Introduction

"Many of us here yearn for something more in our life. Shashi has provided a spiritual release in his beautiful book, "Songs of the Mist". It’s unusual and thought provoking book. The book answers questions that we struggle to frame in our daily lives. Shashi’s descriptive beauty of the mystic nature of Himalayas interwoven with sufferings and the heartaches, and the struggle of each protagonist, provide eloquent and thought provoking read. Not a book to be browsed at glance and to reach books full potential demands commitment and investment of time to savor its subtlety and do grows." - Timeri N Murari (Famous Author, Script Writer and Journalist) speaking about “Songs of the Mist” at an evening of Art, Music and Writing organised by Apparao Galleries at The Hotel Leela Palace